Boris Godunov (Russia) (c. 1551–1605; Ruled 1598–1605)

BORIS GODUNOV (RUSSIA) (c. 1551–1605; ruled 1598–1605), tsar of Russia. Boris Fedorovich Godunov rose to prominence at the Russian court in the time of Ivan IV the Terrible's oprichnina. He married the daughter of a leading oprichnik, and his sister Irina became the wife of Tsar Ivan's son Fedor (ruled 1584–1598). When the latter ascended the throne on Ivan's death, Boris was one of the five-man regency for the weak tsar. By 1587 Boris had exiled many of his rivals and become the de facto ruler of Russia. Tsar Fedor's younger brother Dmitrii was given an appanage in Uglich on the upper Volga, and his mysterious death in 1591 gave rise to rumors of Boris's complicity.

Boris, in Fedor's name, led Russia to victory over Sweden in 1590–1595 and recovered the Russian lands lost in the Livonian War. He laid the foundations for Russian expansion into Siberia and heavily strengthened the southern frontier. He convinced the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople to raise the metropolitan of Moscow to the rank of patriarch in 1589. Nevertheless, the reign of Fedor was a time of hardship. The wars of his father, Ivan IV, had undermined Russian agriculture and general prosperity, and Boris's government issued the first decrees limiting peasant movement—the beginnings of serfdom. Though trade with the Dutch flourished, Russian towns only slowly rebuilt their trade and crafts.

In 1598 the death of Tsar Fedor brought to an end to the dynasty that had ruled the Moscow principality and Russia since the end of the thirteenth century. An Assembly of the Land representing the boyars, gentry, towns, and the church elected Boris tsar over other aristocrats and lesser relatives of the former dynasty. Even as tsar, Boris did not feel secure. In 1600 he exiled Fedor Nikitich Romanov (later Patriarch Filaret) and other members of his clan, as well as their relatives and allies, such as the princes Cherkasskii. Increasingly isolated from the ruling elite, he tried to raise his prestige through the marriage of his daughter to a prince of Denmark. In 1601–1603 bad harvests led to a famine throughout much of Russia. At the end of 1604 the first "false Dmitrii," probably the monk Grigorii Bogdanovich Otrep'ev, appeared on the southern frontier. Supported by a number of Polish magnates, Otrep'ev claimed to be the tsarevich Dmitrii who had died in 1591, the legitimate heir to the throne, miraculously rescued by God. Boris's army was at first able to contain the threat, but Boris suddenly died in April 1605, leaving the throne to his sixteen-year-old son Fedor. At the news of his death, resistance to the false Dmitrii collapsed. As the pretender moved north, the boyars in Moscow, led by the princes Golitsyn, overthrew and murdered Fedor and his mother.

Boris was at once a successful ruler, especially in foreign affairs, and a spectacular failure. The rivalries at his court rendered the state weak at its center in a time of rising social tension in the countryside and on the southern frontier. The result was the period of state collapse and anarchy known as the Time of Troubles.

Boris Godunov

Boris Godunov. Opera in 4 acts, with prol., by Mussorgsky to his own lib. based on Pushkin's poetic drama, The Comedy of the Distress of the Muscovite State, of Tsar Boris, and of Grishka Otrepyev (1826) and Karamzin's History of the Russian Empire (1829). Orig. version comp. 1868–9, rev. 1871–2, rev. 1873, 3 scenes prod. St Petersburg 1873 and complete opera 1874, but withdrawn after 25 perfs. Cut, re-orchestrated, and rev. by Rimsky- Korsakov after Mussorgsky's death and thus prod. St Petersburg 1896. This version rev., with some cuts restored, 1906, prod. NY and London 1913. Orig. versions of 1869 and 1872 pubd. Leningrad 1928 in edn. prepared by Prof. Pavel Lamm of Moscow and perf. Leningrad 1928, London (SW) and Paris 1935. The 1869 version had 7 scenes which were altered and re-arranged and an extra (Kromy Forest) scene added. Musicological controversy rages on the ‘correct’ version to use, but there is a growing tendency to prefer the Mussorgsky orchestration. In 1975 David Lloyd-Jones pubd. an edn., for which he had the use of MS sources unknown to Lamm, which also corrects errors of detail and transcr. in Lamm. Vol. I of Lloyd-Jones contains Mussorgsky's 1872 version of prol. and 4 acts and Vol. II the 1869 version of Act 2, the discarded ‘St Basil’ scene, with variants and other scenes. A re-orch. version by Shostakovich exists (1939–40, prod. Leningrad 1959). Title-role inseparably assoc. with Chaliapin and Christoff.

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Godunov, Boris

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

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Boris Godunov (bərēs´ gədōōnôf´), c.1551–1605, czar of Russia (1598–1605). A favorite of Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible), he helped organize Ivan's social and administrative system. After Ivan's death (1584), Boris became virtual ruler of Russia, ostensibly as regent for Ivan's young son Feodor I, who was married to Boris's sister. Boris was popularly believed to have ordered the murder (1591) of Feodor's younger brother and heir, Dmitri, in order to secure the succession for himself. Upon Feodor's death (1598), an assembly of the ruling class chose Boris as czar. Under his rule the Russian church was recognized (1589) as an independent patriarchate, equal to other Eastern churches; peace was obtained with Poland and Sweden, and colonization of the southern steppes and W Siberia was spurred. Most important, Boris continued Ivan's policy of strengthening the power of state officials and townspeople at the expense of the boyars. Yet famine (1602–4) and popular distrust undermined his support, and when a pretender to the throne appeared claiming to be Feodor's brother Dmitri, many rallied to his support and he easily invaded Russia in 1604. Boris died, and his son, Feodor II, was unable to defend the throne against the false Dmitri. Boris's life is the subject of a drama by Pushkin that was the basis for Moussorgsky's famous opera.

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Godunov, Boris

Godunov, Boris (1551–1605) Tsar of Russia (1598–1605). The chief minister (and brother-in-law) of Ivan IV (the Terrible), he became Regent to Ivan's imbecile son Fyodor after Ivan's death, and was popularly supposed to have murdered Fyodor's brother and heir, Dmitri, in 1591. On Fyodor's death in 1598, Boris was elected Tsar. He gained recognition for the Russian Orthodox Church as an independent patriarchate.

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